How To Say my name! Pronunciation thread

[sir fly]

One of the easiest of all Danish names to pronounce.
Couldn't see the problem in the first place.

A bit different when it comes to lingually specific vowels.
Shouldn't be nitpicking in those cases... matter of learning and practice.

 

[Anderis]

As a Pole, it doesn't even hurt my eyes when I hear foreigners pronouncing the names from my language wrongly because I know they won't get them 100% right without weeks of training, unless perhaps they have a particular interest in linguistics. I also haven't heard anyone pronouncing the name of someone as popular as Cristiano Ronaldo anywhere near close to native pronunciation among speakers of either Polish or English. As someone who tried more or less successfully to learn a few foreign languages (and pretty much exclusively related Indo-European languages, so I don't even know a struggle of trying to learn something more distant) I know how much time it takes sometimes to even start recognising a sound that's not in your native language, let alone pronounce it reliably. Your brain simply ignores sounds it's not familiar with when it hears human speech and tries to interpret them as sounds it already knows and each language has a unique set of sounds. Almost any other language is going to have sounds that are not present in your native one. And then you have commentators who have to deal with names from 40 or 50 distinct languages. It's an impossible task.

That doesn't mean that I think that commentators shouldn't make any effort to learn the correct pronunciations of various names but I'm just ready to accept they won't nail it 100% of the time and frankly speaking they can't, unless you, by accident, find a person whose two biggest passions in life are cycling and linguistics. There's also the issue that pronouncing a name correctly might sometimes even be confusing for an audience as they hear something that bears no resemblance to the written form they're familiar with and something they can't even replicate if they tried to talk about that person to other people, let alone the fact they heard it being pronounced another way for years already.

 

[Mosul]

I thought we had settled on Vingo?

I thought all Danish riders had to have avian nicknames like eagle, chicken or birdsong.

 

[Breezy1985]

 

[Rackham]

I call him Jonas.

But to be honest we have so many different languages in Europe, pronunciation differences are guaranteed & not something to be particularly bothered about. And it's often even more jarring when commentators insert awkward 'native' pronunciations which can leave me thinking "what did he just say?" (& people will subsequently attempt to mimic that pronunciation & get it wrong).

Vingegaard is also quite difficult for non-Danes in his original Danish pronunciation, so he's on the extreme side of "this name isn't pronounced the way it's spelt".

It's like telling non-native English speakers they're pronouncing Gloucestershire wrong. Does it even particularly matter? I think these differences add some charm to multi-lingual interactions tbh.

 

[RedheadDane]

I thought all Danish riders had to have avian nicknames like eagle, chicken or birdsong.

In Danish media he's sometimes referred to as "Vinge", which means "wing".
His name literally means "Wingfarm".

 

[Netserk]

Yes, it matters that people learn to pronounce Gloucester, Worcester and Leicester correctly. As for the forvo link, the male pronunciation seems forced, the female one more ordinary. But as always, the authority on the pronunciation of a name is the giver of the name.

 

[Wyndbrook]

Yes, it matters that people learn to pronounce Gloucester, Worcester and Leicester correctly. As for the forvo link, the male pronunciation seems forced, the female one more ordinary. But as always, the authority on the pronunciation of a name is the giver of the name.

Never seen by birth town mentioned before on CW.

 

[ciranda]

It's not important, no one cares what some commentator says on tv. The original post is so conceited like PEASANTS BEHOLD MY IMPORTANCE YOU MUST LEARN. Go away please.

 

[RedheadDane]

It's not important, no one cares what some commentator says on tv. The original post is so entitled like PEASANTS BEHOLD MY IMPORTANCE YOU MUST LEARN. Go away please.

Yeah... I mean... as long as people don't pronounce it like Carlton Kirby once did...

 

[Samu Cuenca]

It's not important, no one cares what some commentator says on tv. The original post is so entitled like PEASANTS BEHOLD MY IMPORTANCE YOU MUST LEARN. Go away please.

Well there are multiple threads on here (this one included) and countless posts which debunks that conclusion, though.

Whether it be a Mandarin speaking Brit, who doesn't like the name of a Suisse city he hasn't heard of, a different Dane criticising the pronunciation of a Slovakian name, a third Dane complaining about the use of the wrong Danish surname, a fourth Dane fussing over a Danish rider getting called Norwegian or perhaps a Canadian, who either loves or "loves" the sounds coming out of the mouth of a magic spanner, they will most like find a way to make people know about it!

 

[Red Rick]

Listening to your countries' names getting butchered is part of the fun.

 

[BlueRoads]

I think it's totally normal that people don't pronounce names correctly. However, I'm annoyed if commentators don't make the slightest effort not to butcher names that are important in the sport.
If I don't know someone or have only seen their name on a list before I meet them, I might pronounce them awfully/ according to German language rules, but if they are important in for instance my job and they are often in the conversation and I continue to pronounce for instance a Korean name not only incorrectly (which I probably will despite my best efforts) but still butcher it completely without caring about the real pronounciation, I think that's ignorant.

 

[CyclistAbi]

If we managed to teach the world to pronounce č, like čebula. Then Vinego should be rather easy!

Vinego go! Did i get it right?

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Yeah... I mean... as long as people don't pronounce it like Carlton Kirby once did...

ˈhɑː(ɹ)pə(ɹ) ?

 

[RedheadDane]

If we managed to teach the world to pronounce č, like čebula. Then Vinego should be rather easy!

How?

 

[Red Rick]

Yeah... I mean... as long as people don't pronounce it like Carlton Kirby once did...

It brings an interesting question.

How much Kirby just getting riders wrong is because he actually knows but can't figure out how to pronounce their names so he just hopes it's a different one

 

[Rackham]

I think it's totally normal that people don't pronounce names correctly. However, I'm annoyed if commentators don't make the slightest effort not to butcher names that are important in the sport.
If I don't know someone or have only seen their name on a list before I meet them, I might pronounce them awfully/ according to German language rules, but if they are important in for instance my job and they are often in the conversation and I continue to pronounce for instance a Korean name not only incorrectly (which I probably will despite my best efforts) but still butcher it completely without caring about the real pronounciation, I think that's ignorant.

There's also a lack of consistency I don't see mentioned in these sorts of discussions, i.e. in this thread we see people who want names pronounced their native way... but what about the locations in the race? It's sort of surreal to be checking whether the commentators are saying the rider's names right... when towns, cities, regions, roads, rovers etc. are all said in their translated version.

For example when a French commentator pronounces Tao Geoghegan Hart the English way & in the same sentence he says Londres (minor example, but there are far more glaring examples with races in Spain, Italy etc.).

Bottom line I think it's a bit silly to split hairs over the issue of pronouncing foreign words.

 

[tobydawq]

There's also a lack of consistency I don't see mentioned in these sorts of discussions, i.e. in this thread we see people who want names pronounced their native way... but what about the locations in the race? It's sort of surreal to be checking whether the commentators are saying the rider's names right... when towns, cities, regions, roads, rovers etc. are all said in their translated version.

For example when a French commentator pronounces Tao Geoghegan Hart the English way & in the same sentence he says Londres (minor example, but there are far more glaring examples with races in Spain, Italy etc.).

Bottom line I think it's a bit silly to split hairs over the issue of pronouncing foreign words.

I disagree entirely. If a place name has a different name in a given language (for example Rome instead of Roma) it would be absurd if an English commentator said Roma and not Rome.

Names of people don't follow that rule and should be approximated within reason.

 

[CyclistAbi]

Imagine Kirby shouting Vinego. People would start to complain he is biased.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I disagree entirely. If a place name has a different name in a given language (for example Rome instead of Roma) it would be absurd if an English commentator said Roma and not Rome.

Names of people don't follow that rule and should be approximated within reason.

I wouldn't call it absurd, cause I think both examples would be fine, but rider name would mostly only have one correct pronunciation; being the one(s) the rider in questprefers.

Imagine Kirby shouting...

That's his main thing though.

 

[CyclistAbi]

How?

You want to learn or you are wondering on how we did it?

P.S. Or are you wondering what čebula is and why we instead say bula when saying čebula without the č.

 

[Netserk]

I disagree entirely. If a place name has a different name in a given language (for example Rome instead of Roma) it would be absurd if an English commentator said Roma and not Rome.

Names of people don't follow that rule and should be approximated within reason.

So you always use the Danish names of Greenlandic towns?

 

[RedheadDane]

You want to learn or you are wondering on how we did it?

P.S. Or are you wondering what čebula is and why we instead say bula when saying čebula without the č.

I'm curious about how to pronounce it.
And what it means.
And everything!

 

[tobydawq]

So you always use the Danish names of Greenlandic towns?

I rarely refer to the towns in Greenland...